Perfect Game has put out their top Recruiting Classes for the 2009 season with Arizona State University ranked in the Top spot. The top recruit for the Sun Devils is Eric Hosmer as he is one of eleven players ranked in the Top 200 in the country to sign with Pat Murphy’s squad. The Georgia Bulldogs are listed in the runner’s up spot as they have signed 20 players with Michael Palazzone as the top recruit in the class. North Carolina comes in with another strong class after their second consecutive CWS championship series appearance. Read the rest of this entry »

The Dallas Morning News has always done a very good job of covering high school sports in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This is an article that I look forward to every year. They talk about the top team, top players and this year Todd Willis talks to the New Coach at Duncanville high School and what it means to take over as the head coach after a legendary coach Bob Rombach retires.

To read the article from the Dallas Morning News go HERE. 

At the International Power Showcase, which took place at Tropicana Field, Maryland Terp signee Zach Helgeson came out on top, cracking 16 total homeruns and 8 in the final round. Vanderbilt signee Matt Marquis hit the most homeruns overall, at 17.

The IPS website, found here, includes video on several of the performers.

The Oregon Daily Emerald has published an article discussing some of the challenges George Horton is facing at the University of Oregon. He has decided to go after some high caliber recruits who will likely be drafted on Day 1 of the MLB draft and might never see the Eugene campus. The full article is available here.

FROM USC PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES — Student Sports (studentsportsbaseball.com) has released its recruiting rankings for the 2009 season with the USC program slotted at third on the nation’s Top 25 classes. Head coach Chad Kreuter and first-year recruiting coordinator Doyle Wilson signed 10 players during the early signing period, including highly-touted shortstop Tim Beckham out of Georgia. Read the rest of this entry »

The CBB continues their series of articles previewing different conferences throughout the country. This week we check in on the Patriot League. Lafayette won the Patriot League title by sweeping Army in the Patriot League Championship series after Army knocked off Navy in the opening round of the Patriot League playoffs. Lafayette lost to Virginia 5-1 and Rutgers 11-10 in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The 2008 season will be the first time that the Patriot League will allow four schools into their postseason tournament which will consist of a best out of three semifinal round followed by a championship series the next weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

We continue to get information on Signing classes almost daily. We have linked below a bunch of the ones that have come out in the last week.

Sam Houston State
George Mason
Clemson
Maryland
Northwestern
LaSalle
Gonzaga
Duquesne
Lipscomb
New Mexico

Patrick Ebert of PG Crosschecker checks in with his early signing period standout classes. You can read his full review here. In alphabetical order (with three of each class’ top names), Ebert notes:

• Arkansas, led by Austin Wright, Bobby Bundy and Tyler Sample.
• Florida, with Ryan Weber, Nick Maronde and Jerico Weitzel.
• Georgia, featuring Brett DeVall, Michael Palazzone and Xavier Avery.
• Kentucky, boasting Alex Meyer, Andy Burns and Daniel Webb.
• San Diego State, lining up Isaac Galloway, Ryan O’Sullivan and Matt Lollis.
• UCLA, landing Gerrit Cole, Clark Murphy and Chris Amezquia.
• Vanderbilt, snaring Sonny Gray, Jack Armstrong and Jason Esposito.

FROM PRESS RELEASE
TAMPA, Fla. – Second-year head coach Lelo Prado announced Friday that the University of South Florida baseball staff has signed 11 recruits to National Letters of Intent for the 2008-09 academic year.

Prado’s second recruiting class at USF is made up of five pitchers, four infielders and two outfielders.

The class of 2008-09 includes: Adrian Nieto, (C), American Heritage High School, Hialeah, Fla.; Anthony Ferrara, (LHP), Riverview High School, Riverview, Fla.; Kyle Parker, (LHP), Newsome High School, Lithia, Fla.; Sam Mende (SS), Clearwater Central Catholic High School, Clearwater, Fla.; Alex Mendez (LHP/OF), Bishop Moore High School, Orlando, Fla.; Jay Taylor (OF), Seminole High School, Seminole, Fla.; Sean Buckley (RHP/1B), King High School, Tampa, Fla.; Corey Thomas (RHP/SS), Middleton High School, Tampa, Fla.; Peter Brotons (2B), Christopher Columbus High School/Daytona Beach Community College, Miami, Fla.; Adrian Puig (RHP), Miami Gulliver Prep, Homestead, Fla.; Matt Reed (LHP), West Stanley High School, Albemarle, N.C.

“I’m very happy with our first two recruiting classes here at USF,” said Prado. “I would have never thought I would be able to get these types of players right off the bat. We’re making great strides and Bryant (Ward) and Lazer (Collazo) have done a great job recruiting these guys.” Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
HARRISONBURG, Va., Nov. 29, 2007 – James Madison University baseball head coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland announced the signing of three high school athletes and a junior college player who will join the Dukes for the 2008-09 school year.

“We’ve had two highly-ranked recruiting classes in a row,” commented McFarland, who is entering his 11th season with the Dukes. “This class is small, but we’re trying to fill in some key holes from what’s left of the last two classes. We needed to add a catcher, and of course you need pitching every year. Plus there’s always a chance we lose a few guys in the draft and we have to prepare for that. As far as hitting, the catcher is a left-handed hitter and the outfielder is a switch hitter so that helps us out. Basically, we’re just trying to fill in the pieces to the puzzle to add to the last two classes.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Baseball program have announced that they have picked up seven players for the 2009 season. The first signee is Daniel Bowman out of Turner Ashby High School in Bridgewater VA where he has played three years of varsity baseball. He had a strong 2007 season where he hit .491 average with eight homers and 35 RBI as he led the team to their second straight state championship. Steve Davis also committed to the Coastal Carolina program. He hails out of Steubenville High School in Steubenville Ohio. He had a .395 average with 25 runs scored and 21 stolen bases in his junior season. Brad Goldberg is the second player from Ohio in this class. He hails from Beachwood High School in Beachwood Ohio. He is a right handed pitcher who went 5-1 with 64 strikeouts. He also hit a solid .450 with 35 RBI but is not expected to see time in the field. Coastal Carolina also picked up a commitment from Anthony Meo from Cranston West High School in Cranston RI. Meo had a perfect junior season which saw him go 9-0 with a 0.77 ERA. The Chanticleers then went down to Palm Beach Gardens Florida to pick up a commitment from Taylor Motter. He only hit .397 with 10 RBI against tough competition in Florida. TJ Swank of Crystal Lake Illinois also committed to the program. He had a disappointing 2007 season which saw him miss six starts but had a 3-2 record with a 1.10 ERA. In his sophomore year, he picked up All-Conference and All-Area awards after going 8-3 with a 1.04 ERA. The last signee was Tommy Winegardner from Riverdale Baptist High School in Maryland. He was named the MVP of the Maryland Private School Championship game in 2007 after helping Riverdale Baptist to their 3rd straight championship. He has been named to the Under Armour All-American the last two seasons and is pre-season All-State. The full release on the signed players is available here.

These players should be able to make a positive impact on one of the rising programs in the country. Coastal Carolina will open the 2008 season on February 22nd against Maryland in the IMIChotels.com INN-vational. The full season schedule is available here.

We continue to get 2009 Recruiting Classes into the offense. Click on the respective school for the full article.

Manhattan
Siena
Texas Pan-American
Northern Illinois
St. Bonaventure
Jacksonville